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The successful interrogation of a suspect is mostly about psychology and quick thinking. You shouldn't try to interrogate anyone if you lose your nerve or have a prejudice as to the innocence of the person. Be calm and try to find the truth, not to prove you're right in your suspicions. Be suspicious yourself so that the suspect is mystified.

Start the interview with light conversation. While doing so, establish the character of the questioned person. This may involve their occupation, musical preferences, family, etc. During this preliminary chat look for signs if the person is nervous and scared, prone to bragging, confident or not. Mark their level of intelligence and adapt to it.[1]XResearch source

Let the interrogated person tell you their story without interrupting them. Look for inconsistencies. Being too detailed often shows the person has been prepared for questioning and has had the time to make their story up.[2]XResearch source

Have another person enter the room shortly after the interviewed person has finished their story. Your associate must pretend to say something in your ear. Give the interviewed person a short look and excuse yourself.

Ask for details. Some questions, like the color of a hit-and-run vehicle are easy to answer and the suspect saying they don't remember is an obvious attempt to conceal something. On the other hand, it would be strange for the interrogated person to have seen or remember the license number, so answering this question would show them having thought the whole thing over.[3]XResearch source

Look for signs the suspect is lying. These may include crossing the hands (defensive position), sitting on the edge of the chair, too relaxed posture, tilting their head to the right, looking up as they think of the answer.[4]XResearch source

Be careful about the details. For example, if the hit-and-run has been driving on the suspect's side of the road(assuming you're in a right-side traffic country), it's strange for the suspect to say the car had a scratch on the left side. How have they seen it? These little details most often reveal a liar.

"Where were you on [date of the incident]?" "Can anyone verify your whereabouts on that date?" "What is your relationship to the victim?" If you're trying to figure out what happened, you need to ask Who, What, When, and Where questions. You want to find out exactly what happened, when and where it happened, and who was involved.

Because there are so many people inside a school, unless the stolen item has a high-value (i.e. money, which you can report to an administrator), your school has security cameras, or you know who stole your stuff and the stolen item has something on it to prove that it is your property, some people know that they can get away with stealing something from someone in school and that there's nothing you can do about it.

As an LAPD homicide and sex crimes investigator, I like to start an interview with questions such as: How did you know the victim? Where were you when the murder occurred? Do you own a firearm/other weapon? These questions allow you to gain knowledge about the accused quickly and easily. These questions are also hard to lie to because this information can be easily checked, so you can find and establish whether or not your suspect is hiding something.

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wikiHow is a “wiki,” similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 26 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. Together, they cited 5 references. This article has been viewed 112,013 times.